The velodrome for the 2012 Olympics, nicknamed the giant Pringle for its crisp-like curves, is in the running to be named building of the year after picking up a design award from the Royal Institute of British Architects.

The 6,000-seat building, completed in February, is the first construction at the £9bn Olympic park in east London to be granted an award by RIBA.

The creators, Hopkins Architects, were advised by Sir Chris Hoy, the multiple gold-medal winning track cyclist, and the award looks set to be the first of many for the park. The 80,000-seat main stadium has already been applauded for its simplicity, and, meanwhile, the aquatics centre, designed by Zaha Hadid, is still being built, and a giant viewing-platform, designed by Anish Kappor to resemble a twisted roller-coaster, is halfway to completion.

The RIBA's long list, for contenders for the £20,000 prestigious Stirling prize, includes the velodrome, a project led by Sir Michael Hopkins, who designed Portcullis House in Westminster.

On the list of 97 buildings granted RIBA awards is the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, refurbished and rebuilt by Bennetts Associates; the Evelyn Grace city academy in Lambeth, London, designed by Hadid; and the Faustiono winery in the Ribero del Duero region in Spain, designed by Foster and Partners.

An elegant but austere pavilion cafe, designed by Caruso St John Architects, in the grounds of Chiswick House, the 18th-century neo-Palladian villa in west London, is one of the smallest projects but is being tipped by some for a place on the RIBA shortlist.

The president of the institute, Ruth Reed, said the list illustrated the health of British architecture in spite of the recession hitting construction. In August 2009 about 30% of architects were without jobs or enough work to keep busy, according to the institute, and about 4,000 architects were made redundant.

"In spite of a terrible worldwide recession many exceptional buildings have been and continue to be built in the UK and overseas," said Reed. "Even in constrained times committed clients working with talented architects can achieve architectural excellence."

However, so thin have the opportunities been in the UK that some of British architecture's biggest names only won prizes for projects in Europe. Last year's Stirling Prize winner, David Chipperfield, won awards for a shopping centre in Innsbruck and a museum in Essen, but nothing for a building in the UK.

The legacy of Labour's education building programme continued to be rewarded with 14 schools and nine university buildings granted awards.

An architectural experiment by the writer Alain de Botton was recognised, with prizes for two private holiday homes he commissioned and which he lets through his group, Living Architecture.

One of the homes is a tar-black house with a concrete and wood interior designed by the Glasgow firm Nord Architecture and set on the shingle beach of Dungeness, in Kent, near the home of the late film-maker Derek Jarman. The second is a balancing barn in Suffolk, by the Dutch practice MVRDV, which cantilevers unnervingly off a hillside. The homes offer people the chance to experience cutting-edge architecture – though a week in the balancing barn in September costs £2,604.